A Texas woman who faced up to life in prison after embezzling $1.2 million killed herself hours before being sentenced, court records show.

Paige Moody Bisher, 43, of Spring, shot herself in the chest in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart in Humble just hours prior to her scheduled sentencing on Wednesday, according to Harris County Institute of Forensic Science records cited by the Houston Chronicle.

Bisher, whose death was ruled a suicide by the county’s medical examiner, pleaded guilty in January, admitting that she stole more than $1 million from her Houston employer while working as a part-time administrative assistant.

Prosecutor Lester Blizzard said he intended to seek an extended prison term from state District Judge Nikita Harmon following Bisher’s plea to the felony charge of first-degree theft in excess of $300,000.

“It is a very tragic event and we will pray for the healing of all those involved in this sad case,” Blizzard wrote the newspaper in an email.

The missing funds were discovered when Bisher’s employer asked to see the company’s latest financial records, prompting her to quit instead. An audit was then launched and found that Bisher had been writing checks to herself. She was later indicted by the Harris County District Attorney’s Office’s financial crimes division.

“The abuse of trust in this case was unparalleled in the 24 years I’ve been investigating white-collar crimes,” Bryan Vaclavik, chief fraud examiner for Harris County prosecutors, told the newspaper.